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Last Wednesday evening, following our crucial victory over Fulham and the resulting massive boost of three priceless points – having negotiated the bleak riverside trudge back to the underground, and survived the farcical squeeze trying to get into Putney Bridge station and its single District Line platform (don’t try telling me Stratford, with its numerous travel options is worse than that) - I eventually climbed back into my car just before midnight.

I hit the stop/start button and what should come blaring out at me courtesy of Greatest Hits Radio? Only Gloria Gaynor with her signature 1978 mega-selling hit ‘I will Survive’! Spooky or what? The timing was perfect! If that’s not an omen for us and the rest of this season what is?




Seven games ago West Ham were seven points off Nottingham Forest, eight points adrift of Leeds and a massive 13 points behind Tottenham Hotspur. Now we’re level with Forest, just a single point behind the spuds and one win ( three points) short of Leeds. Why shouldn’t we be growing in confidence after that?

From once looking dead and buried to all but the most loyal of Hammers, we are now very much the form team amongst those bidding to retain their Premier League status. Momentum is vital – and that’s what we have now in the league. With momentum comes confidence.

The players have that too and it’s manifesting itself on the pitch in their play. Off it you sense a new and genuine belief in their comments. Mads Hermansen, who was recently brought back into the side by Nuno and is now repaying his boss with some excellent performances says: “We all believe it’s possible (staying up).

There are nine games left, 27 points still. If we can continue our good run, we can go forward. We cannot relax just because we are level (with Forest). We need to stay sharp, because getting back to here has not been easy.”

Of course Mads is spot on, this is no time to relax. With the number of teams still involved in the battle at the bottom, particularly with the number of so-called six-pointer fixtures to come, the eventual outcome might not be known until the fat lady sings around teatime on the 24th May – the final day of the season. But we have to fancy our chances of surviving now, surely.

Nuno has worked miracles since the turn of the year. He invested early in the transfer market with Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe (almost unheard of for us in recent seasons) – and despite a lull in activity through the rest of the month, to the frustration of some, he looks to have pulled a real rabbit out of the hat right at the end of the window by bringing in Axel Disasi from Chelsea.

The final piece of the jigsaw. The piece he was searching for to complete the picture and take us through to the end of the season.




We look a proper team now. Playing together. Working together. Sticking together. There have of course been some excellent individual performances to acknowledge. Summerville has been superb. Fernandes has been fantastic. Taty has been terrific.

Despite all that some of our fanbase remain eternal pessimists. Still seemingly searching out negatives to fret over. Bemoaning our run-in and claiming it’s the toughest of those around us. But in truth at this stage of the season there are no givens – no easy games – and the teams who have developed the knack of winning will fare best.

I believe we fall into that category. Who goes in our stead I don’t really care – although like most I’d love it to be the Spuds. They may have a world class stadium – and world class training facilities – but that will count for nothing in a dogfight to the death.

Now I’m off to shuffle my tune choices on Spotify. Glo Gaynor is of course going to feature – but I’ll be adding ‘Soul Survivor’ by the Stones, ‘I’m a Survivor’ by Reba McEntire, ‘Survivor’ by Destiny’s Child and of course the classic ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor. That should do it I think!

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